When Mark Richardson blasted hoons as "subspecies" earlier this year he did not anticipate the enormous public response he received.
"It certainly happened by accident. I was asked a question at a media stand-up and I just gave an honest answer. I didn't really think anything of it at the time," the head of ACT Road Policing said.
"I was getting contacted by people all over Australia saying 'thank god someone's willing to actually talk normally, say something we can understand and not beat around the bush'."
Acting Inspector Richardson made the comments in response to drivers who took part in illegal burnouts during Summernats.
"They just haven't evolved very far. I think they've really plateaued as a species or subspecies of the human race," he said at the time.
"It's the moron tourism that we get. I mean, if we set up an IQ testing station at the border, instead of a vehicle testing station, we would probably halve our problems."
At the time, many suggested he should consider a career in politics and Mr Richardson is doing just that.
He has been confirmed as the first endorsed candidate for Independents for Canberra and will run as a leading candidate in Ginninderra in the October poll.
"I think from that whole episode, I probably felt if I could have that impact in a one or two minute press conference then maybe there's something more to it," he said.
Independents for Canberra was registered as a party earlier this year with the aim of increasing the chances of getting independents elected to the Legislative Assembly in the October election.
The group chose to start a party to bolster the chances of getting independents elected. Candidates are independents but are chosen to run under the Independents of Canberra banner based on commitments to there being no vested interests, integrity, evidence-based policy making and long-term thinking.
Mr Richardson said he had felt many had become disillusioned with politics and he wanted to put forward a platform based on integrity and accountability.
He said in his role as a police officer he saw both positives and negatives in the community.
"As a police officer you certainly see a lot of things that are not right with how things work in the community but you also see a lot of really positive sides of how people can interact and what works well and what doesn't," he said.
"There are a lot of people that probably don't speak up and I want to be an advocate for those people."
Mr Richardson highlighted victims rights as a priority. He said he felt they had been forgotten as the overwhelming focus was on perpetrators.
"In the justice system, quite rightly, there is a lot of focus on the perpetrators and we all want to see a reduction in recidivism," he said.
"We really need to focus strongly on those sort of preventative things and putting supports in place for those people so we're not seeing the same thing over and over again.
"But I guess the way I look at it is it's absolutely important that we do focus on those people but not at the expense of victims and their rights."
But Mr Richardson wants the public to know he is not just a policeman and he wanted to address issues in education and health.
"I do have a strong focus on justice and community safety but by the same token, I have lived in Canberra for 26 years and I'm not a police officer 24 hours a day," he said.
"I've raised a family here, my kids have gone to school here and so it's not just policing and justice but there's a whole raft of things that I think really needs to be looked at in the ACT."
Independents for Canberra leader Thomas Emerson said Mr Richardson had integrity, spoke his mind and "wears his heart on his sleeve".
"He wants to represent his community because he knows we deserve better in the ACT," he said.
